Chest-on-stand
Category
Furniture
Date
circa 1840 - 1860
Materials
Painted and varnished wood, gilt
Measurements
100 x 82 x 50 cm
Place of origin
Bareilly, Northern India
Order this imageCollection
Bateman's, East Sussex
NT 760817
Summary
A painted and varnished chest, on a carved wooden stand, Bareilly, Northern India, mid-19th century. With hinged lid The front and sides decorated with a landscape scene in the Chinese style, showing buildings, stylised figures and leaves, within a broad border of pairs of stylised leaves. The stand of 'X'-form, carved with leaves and shells around a central floral lozenge. The interior teal-painted and varnished. -- In 1945, when Bateman's was owned by the National Trust but tenanted, Alice 'Trix' Kipling, Rudyard's sister, visited the property, and a booklet was printed to mark the occasion. In it, she is quoted as saying that, in the Hall, ‘stands a fine painted chest which Mrs Fleming said had belonged to the King of Oudh. This sovereign she described as ‘a mutiny gent’ and explained that he was deposed by the British Government and his possessions – which had included ‘some mangey lions and tigers’ – were sold. She goes on to say that 'Lockwood Kipling recognised this chest as a museum piece of period about 1620, Chinese design, Indian workmanship, so bought it and in due course it found its way to Batemans.’ The last King of Oudh - a princely state in the Awadh region of North India - ruled until it was annexed by the British in 1856. His ownership of the chest is not verifiable, but this type of chest is now known to have been made in Northern India - probably in Bareilly - in the 19th century. Bareilly furniture-makers produced objects in a variety of different decorative finishes, causing some confusion for future generations trying to determine their place of manufacture. This chest on stand is of a type made in a variety of different colours and styles, some of which, like this one, incorporated conventional western-style floral motifs and others that were directly inspired by lacquer designs on Chinese export furniture. Until recently, examples of this type have been commonly misidentified as having been made in Canton (Guangzhou) in south-eastern China. The Victoria & Albert Museum has a similar example (02325:1, 2) in their collection. John Lockwood Kipling (1837-1911), Rudyard's father first moved to India in 1865. Shortly afterwards, in December of the same year, Rudyard Kipling was born.
Provenance
Traditionally reputed to have belonged to the last King of Oudh and to have been purchased by John Lockwood Kipling (1837-1911). Listed in the 'Large Hall' in the inventory taken at Bateman's in 1939. Bequeathed by Caroline Starr Balestier, Mrs Rudyard Kipling (1862-1939) with Bateman’s and its contents.
References
Jaffer 2001 : Amin Jaffer, Furniture from British India and Ceylon, a catalogue of the collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Peabody Essex Museum, London, V&A publications, 2001., pp. 268-9, Fig. 65